CHAPTER 89 - THE SECOND INVESTIGATION

Dean.

My heart races as I make my way inside the police station. I reach for Lace’s hand and hold it so tight she nudges me to loosen my grip.

“Sorry,” I whisper.

“It is going to be okay,” she assures me.

Dan, the private investigator spots us and signals for us to join him at one of the detective’s desks. My father is already there with his lawyer, Wayne Greene. I approach them nervously.

“Dean,” my father greets me with a smile probably to assure me that everything is going to be okay.

“Dad.” Lace squeezes my hand. This isn’t how I planned on introducing Lace to my father. “I’d like you to meet Lace, my girlfriend.”

My father hugs Lace. “It’s lovely to meet you, Lace,” he tells her, “I am so sorry it isn’t under better circumstances.”

Lace smiles. “It’s okay. It’s my pleasure to meet you, Mr. St James,” she says and totally wins him over.

“Dean, I am so glad you decided to meet us,” Archie Kline, one of the detectives says.

“We know that this wasn’t an easy decision for you to make,” Howard Cooper, the other detective tells me. He gestures for Lace and I to be seated.

“Your father tells us that Dr. Jordan, your psychologist, may have some valuable information that will help prove you were not driving on the night of the accident,” Archie tells me.

“Yes, I tell him. She put me under hypnosis and she said that I revealed valuable information to her,” I tell him.

“Do we have your permission to contact Dr. Jordan,” Howard asks.

“Yes, you do,” I reply without hesitation. As I sit in the police station across from the detectives for the second time in my life, I wish that this would all be over so that I can move on with the rest of my life with Lace.

“Can you tell us what you remember without being under hypnosis?” Archie asks me.

Wayne, my father’s lawyer, taps my hand. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” he reminds me.

“I want to,” I reply.

My father squeezes my hand. “You’re doing the right thing,” he assures me.

“I want you to tell us everything that you remember about that night. Don’t leave out anything no matter how insignificant or intimate the details are,” Archie tells me. He turns on a recorder. Howard is ready to jot down notes.

“Okay,” I say.

“You may begin,” Archie says.

***

(Flashback).

Dana called me. “Hey, Dana,” I answered, smiling more than usual. She made me so happy I forgot words or things like what I was about to do. Deep in my heart, I knew this was love. Dana was the first girl who never asked me to buy her stuff or take her to fancy restaurants or, on expensive holidays. She just wanted to spend time with me and talk for hours.

“Hey, Dean.” Her friends giggled and teased her in the background. “What time are you coming over?”

She invited me to spend the afternoon at her place, watching movies with her friends. My friends will also be joining me at her place.

“Jason and I are on our way,” I told her. Jason was in the shower. We got back late from baseball practice.

“Don’t be too late,” she whispered to me while her friends continued giggling and teasing her. I am sure she had me on speaker phone but I didn’t mind at all.

“I won’t,” I promised her, “I miss you so much already.” We’d been dating for almost three months and I missed her more every day. I never experienced that level of emotion for anyone else in my life at that point.

“We’ll start making popcorn as soon as you and the guys come over,” Dana said.

“Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say. Like I mentioned earlier, I tended to lose some of my intellectual abilities whenever I was around her.

“I love you,” she whispered. Her friends mimicked her in the background.

“I love you too.” It was the truth. I loved Dana with all of my heart and soul and I would have done anything to keep her in my life. She ended the call first.

“Jason!” I yelled. “How long does it take you to scrub your balls?”

“I am almost done,” he yelled back.

Jason is the closest person I have to a sibling. He got me out of more fixes than I can remember. He pushed me to enroll at university, supported me throughout high school, and motivated me to continue with baseball practice. Jason also introduced me to Dana.

I freshened up, changed into a clean pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, sprayed Dana’s favorite cologne and waited in the living room for Jason.

“I am ready, dude,” he announced a few minutes later joining me in the living room.

Jason looked like a member of a boy band. He’d ironed his shoulder-length blonde hair and left it loose. He’d dressed in a tailored blue shirt and tan chinos.

“You look dashing,” I told him.

He grins. “Thank you.” He posed like a supermodel in the doorway.

“I guess we can leave now,” I told him. It had been more than a day since I last saw Dana and I couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing her.

“Sure.” He grabbed his coat and followed me to my car. Jason sat in the front seat. “Are you going to get hammered tonight?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “I am not planning on drinking any alcohol tonight. Are you?”

“Nope. But I am available to be the designated driver if you change your mind,” he told me.

“Thanks,” I told him. I planned on spending good quality time with Dana and I didn’t need alcohol to do that. I wanted to talk to her all night, make out and wake up with her next to me on the next morning. I am not even planning on driving anywhere. She invited me to stay over. There is no place that I would rather be than with Dana.

Jason turned on the music while I drove. We didn’t talk much on the way to Dana’s apartment which she shared with her older sister and two other friends. The apartment was in a pretty decent neighborhood, so at least my parents didn’t have to worry about my safety. I was pretty reckless back then. Dana was a few years older than me and already had an internship at a law firm. I was so proud of her. Even though Jason motivated me to enroll for my bachelor’s degree, it was because of Dana that I was determined to make something of my life. I didn’t want to be known just for being an heir to my parent’s fortune.

The drive to Dana’s apartment seemed to take forever even though I reached Dana’s place fifteen minutes later. She greeted me with a warm hug and a peck on the lips.

“I missed you,” I whispered giving her a kiss.

“I missed you too,” she said and kissed me back.

Jason cleared his throat next to me and I realized we were obstructing the doorway.

“Sorry,” I murmured and moved out of the way. Dana never let go of my hand. We spend the rest of the evening watching movies. Dana’s sister made popcorn. Four of my other friends joined us about an hour into the first movie and ordered pizza. At around 9 p.m., Jason suggested we go to a pop-up drive-in screening. He fixed us virgin mocktails before we left. I drank mine in one gulp. It tasted a little bitter but didn’t think much of it because we ate a lot of takeout and junk food that night – popcorn, pizza, fizzy drinks, ice cream and the Lord knows what else.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Dana said. She loved simple things.

“Let’s go then,” I told her, and tossed my keys to Jason. “Do you mind driving bro’?” I asked him.

He caught the keys with both hands. “Not at all.”

One of the other guys decided to ride with us. I didn’t mind at all as long as I had the back seat all to myself. Dana snuggled next to me as soon as we left her apartment. Her sister and most of her friends decided not to join us. They chose to return home instead. Jason didn’t seem to mind at all. He was more than happy to go to the drive-in with us. Dana didn’t mind Jason and our other friend joining us. We did have plans to watch the movie because Dana loved screenings of old movies. We were happy to be with each other holding hands and just watching movies.

***

(Present).

“What was the other friend’s name?” Archie asks me.

“I don’t remember.” Maybe I remembered who rode with us that night during hypnosis but I cannot recall that person’s name now.

“When was the last time you spoke to Jason?” Howard asks me.

I shrug. “He asked me to hang out with him a few nights ago but I didn’t feel up to it.”

“Did he try calling you again?” Howard asks me.

“No.” I wonder what Howard is trying to get at. They interviewed and interrogated Jason after the accident and didn’t find anything to link him to Dana’s death.

“Well, I think it’s time we chatted with Jason.,” Howard says.

My father pats my shoulder because he knows Jason is the only real friend I have ever had. One of the uniformed police officers brings a file and hands it to Archie.

“It’s from Dr. Jordan,” Archie tells us. He gives a copy of the report inside the file to my father’s lawyer.

I hold my breath and wonder what new information will be revealed to me about that night.

“it’s going to be okay,” Lace reassures me.

I wish I believed it.